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tv   Martin Bashir  MSNBC  July 20, 2011 12:00pm-1:00pm PDT

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and we begin with president obama summoning democratic leaders to the white house to be followed shortly by house republicans. bipartisan support is growing for a compromise deal hatched in the senate, even as house republicans double down on symbolic spending cuts. the big breakthrough coming from the newly resurrected gang of six, a plan to reduce deficits by nearly $4 trillion in the coming decade. president obama championed the plan tuesday, and it emerged with the support of 49 senators on both sides of the aisle. house republicans, on the other hand, spent all day tuesday debating, and last night passing a cut, cap and balance, ccb proposal, that has little or no chance of surviving in the senate. senator chuck schumer described it today as dead on arrival and faces the promise of a veto if it were to reach the president, and despite digging in their heels against new ref gnaw and
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in favor of more spending cuts tea party walsh had a hard time explaining what cuts were in the house bill. >> why doesn't it name the cuts? >> it calls for $111 billion in cuts, chris. >> where? >> in the bill. >> you've criticized the president for not having a plan and you don't have one. >> all right. we're joined now by nbc's luke russert who covers capitol hill and nbc's mick viqueira at the white house where moments ago democrat leaders arrived to meet with the president behind closed doors. good day to both of you, gentlemen. i'll start with you. the clock is ticking. we've been watching it. the white house suggesting today that the president could sign a short-term deal if a bigger deal looms. what's on the table today in this meeting? >> yeah. let's get that little business out of way first. i think a lot was made of that, but they are merely stating the obvious. they will not let process get in the way of saving the country and the world from a calamity, an economic calamity, simply saying if there is a deal in the offing and all sides are firmly committed, they have a handshake deal, sure, they will extend
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that august 2nd deadline and ask the congress to raise the debt ceiling for a few days. look, the white house still says they want the big deal, richard, the so-called grand bargain, and what we saw out of the gang of six in the senate yesterday is simply another version of that, some $4 trillion, completely overhauling the tax code. at least that's what it would call for, digging into entitlements. something in there for everybody to hate, but the question still remains. big deal, half a loaf, mcconnell fall-back plan? are there the votes in the house of representatives to do it and that's part of what the president will have on the table when he breaks apart the congressional leaders. you know, we saw six meetings over the course of the last two weeks with the republicans and democrats assembled around the same table. they will separate them today. democrats first and republicans second. for democrats the president will need to know how much support do i have, especially when it comes to entitlement, reducing the cost of living adjustments in social security, raising the
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retirement age in medicare, and for republicans the question, how much support can i get from you guys to close tax loopholes, to end some subsidies, to end some tax breaks, what republicans have characterized, at least some, as raising taxes, and so far they have been dead set against that. >> let's bring in luke right now. boehner and cantor will be at the white house at 5:00 in about two hours. what do you expect from that? >> reporter: well, i suspect the gang of six is going to be discussed, their proposal specifically, and it's interesting because we've heard from a few gop aides that while it real set heat of the moment right now in washington to be for this gang of six bipartisan deal, it got a lot of support in the united states senate yesterday at a meeting amongst 50 senators, there is still some trepidation from both sides. i spoke to one senate gop aide that said the way in which the president embraced the gang of six proposal was the quickest way to, quote, kill it in the cradle. gop on the house side, from the speaker's office said, look, there are concerns about this deal, specifically that it does not do enough to cut spending in
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the first ten years. doesn't look at medicare and medicaid as much as we would like so any proposal that the gang of six would come up with is going to face not the easiest road in the house of representatives. that is what we've heard. still, the road is they need to get to 218. what i suspect you're going to hear today at the white house is a discussion of, look, an area this president wants to go, the grand bargain that mike was talking about. there obviously has to be a short-term solution because not all of this can be get done by august 2nd. what is going to be done in the short term, and what can we do in the long term? the big worry on capitol hill, richard, is if you allow this short-term deal to go through and you don't have a concrete sort of tie-in into, all right, a short-term extension of the debt ceiling. any sort of longer extension needs to be tied into what happens to the gang of six plan, that is something that will be very difficult to do because once this plan has been put out in the open, the special interest groups on the left and the right are going to go at it for how long long it's out there, and that could have a lot
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of influence in the house of representatives where those groups have a lot of sway, so the road to 218 on any bargain, a long way to go on anything on the gang of six and long way to go on any temporary solution, 10 days, 12 days. >> 218 and tea party candidates that have to vote for that. thank you both for that. the political battle over the debt ceiling has turned nasty and in some cases downright personal. take the ongoing fight between democrat debbie wasserman schultz and republican allen west, both from florida. >> incredulously the gentleman from florida who represents thousands of medicare beneficiaries as do i is supportive of this plan that would increase costs for medicare beneficiaries. unbelievable from a member from south florida. >> congressman west did not take kindly to those remarks at all. according to politico west fired off an e-mail when he called
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wasserman schultz the most vile and despicable person in the house. you have proven repeatedly that you are not a lady and, therefore, shall not be afforded due respect from me. jonathan alter is a political correspondent. we kind of have to joke and laugh about this, but the bottom line still seeing bickering. why at this point? >> this is kind of out-of-bounds behavior by congressman west. you know, debbie wasserman schultz shot him with, you know, a pea shooter, and he retaliated with an ak-47, so you don't -- i think anybody kind of looking at this nutrily, what she said is basically fair comment, and what he said was way over the top, so instead of normally, richard, when we analyze this, we go, oh, they are squabbling on both sides. >> right, exactly. >> they are both equally nasty. this is a crystal clear example of how in some cases, no, it's
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not an even steven situation. you have one person who, you know, makes a substantive criticism of another member of congress, in this case based on this recent vote in the house and how it would affect voters in south florida, and the other member, in this case allen west, retaliates in a way that is just almost makes your eyes pop out when you read his language. that coarsens our debates and makes it harder for folks to get things done. >> when you look at the gang of six plan which has been talked about furiously over the last 24 hours, meetings right now with democrats and the president as well as republican leaders in a couple of hours, can we make this time line, is it doable, and if so, which plan? >> it's not going to be the full gang of six plan, and i just was in touch this morning with one of the aides to one of the members of the gang of six, and he said their plan -- there's just not enough time to get that
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through. >> 13 days. >> and it's basically the entire federal government for many years affecting every household in the united states, so they are not going to get it done in the time that's left. what they can get done is this fig leaf that senator mcconnell proposed last week, and he is now working with harry reid, and they will come up with some proposal that allows republicans to say they voted against raising the debt ceiling, but by giving the president the responsibility for raising the debt ceiling, they get it done. >> right, right. >> so it -- it's sort of a face-saving device. it doesn't do a damn thing about the deficit. >> right. >> but let's them kind of finesse this period, and then in august and september they can get on to talking about the gang of six proposal. >> jonathan, you brought the fig leafs again, you and i talked about this over the weekend. with the ccb passed right now, tea party-supported candidates,
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87 of them, are all the fig leafs out there right now? can we roll up our sleeves and get some work done? >> well, we don't quite know what the mcconnell/reid or reid/mcconnell fig leaf will be. they are negotiating that right now. the first fig leaf, i call it the big fudge to change metaphors that senator mcconnell offered was problematic for democrats because it required the president to go back three times between now and the election to get the debt ceiling raise sfld in stag raised. >> in stages. >> after what we've been through you'd have to have your head examined to sign on to that if you're the president or democrats so they are going try to amend what mcconnell proposed, but something along those lines is likely to come out of this proses. >> jonathan alter, thanks so much for that. 13 days ahead of us and hope to see some progress. >> thanks, richard. has the discussion over michele bachmann's health taken
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the race for 2012 now, michele bachmann surging in the polls even as she faces a new headache on the campaign trail. a fresh nbc/"wall street journal" poll has bachmann vaulting to 16% and second place in the republican field, behind former massachusetts governor mitt romney and up from just 3% a month ago. that's a bump, but it comes amid new questions about bachmann's health and reports that the republican candidate suffers from sometimes debilitating migraine headaches. she deflected questions today saying she keeps a rigorous schedule and feels great, a day after making this schedule. >> i have prescribed medication that i take on occasion whenever symptoms arise and they keep my migraines under control, but i'd like to be abundantly clear. my ability to function
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effectively will not affect my ability to serve as commander in chief. >> let's get into this more now with msnbc contributor joy ann reed. good it see you. >> thanks, good to be here. >> does it make sense right in the election process to be asking this detailed of a question or considering this detail of her life? >> right. i think at this point because we're in the name requisition acquisition phase of this campaign, where candidates like bachmann are trying to get better known, we do tend to veer off into personal details and things that might not matter so much in the end, but i think in general in a presidential race, health is important because if the president has any potential health issues, think john mccain, it does really put a big spotlight on that vice president and their ability to maybe serve and have to have time when they are not actually commander in chief, so it's a relevant question for presidential candidate. this early, you know, i think it's because people are really getting to know these candidates. >> notable presidents with health issues going back throughout history that we're
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all very aware of. some news organizations are looking at this migraine issue and looking at how it's associated with wearing high heels. i mean, how might some take bit of a negative perspective on such story lines in terms of sexism perhaps? >> i think it is what it is. female questions are going to face questions about their children. sarah palin faced questions about whether it's fair to take questions about a special needs children, spouse, questions about their hair, hillary clinton went through that. women in politics, unfortunately, carry that additional burden of being asked these kinds of questions. is it unfair? kind of harder to feel sorry for michele bachmann on that front because she's taken a mean girl approach to the political process herself. there's reports of her going after the pickford settlement and going after black farmers so when she's taking a stance pushing against another minority group, it's hard to say feel bad for her, she's being treated badly as a woman. >> can she use this to her advantage?
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>> i think because a woman who is extremely pro-life will have a different dodge when it comes to women voters. anything that increases her momma grizzly component, conservative women. it's helped her. she's being talked about helping her name recognition and can go to the momma grizzly stance, stand with me, this is our feminism so anything that gets her name in print is good for her. >> all publicity is good publicity. plus 13 points in just a little bit from the latest "wall street journal" poll. where do you think this leaves her in 2012? >> i think these polls are all meaningless. look at candidates high in the polls, people like rudy giuliani, wesley clark who had a big wow factor before they got into the meat of the race. i don't think the polls mean anything other than do you know who this person, is and with michele bachmann it's partly that and the fact that she's the most authentic tea party candidate. if rick perry gets in, does that cut into her sort of rising momentum? i think probably it does, but
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for now she's in that space. >> in that space so let's go down to the ticket. what do you think it will be and will she be part of it? >> if romney gets the nomination, and i still think romney is the prohibitive favorite, the national organization and will have the money, he'll have to pick a baptist, somebody who is that kind of conservative christian to the base and she is looking like somebody that would be very hard for him to deny and democrats would love for that to happen, but i think she would look like not a sure bet but he'd have to consider putting her on the ticket. >> put a couple of dollars on that. >> i'd put at least one. >> good to see you. >> thank you. next, wendi murdoch and her power in hollywood. stay with us. i love that my daughter's part fish. but when she got asthma, all i could do was worry ! specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice... and my hands were full. i couldn't sort through it all. with unitedhealthcare, it's different. we have access to great specialists,
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mogul, intervened yesterday. deng's lightning reflexes on the left-hand side stunning viewers and sparked an immediate social media buzz. everyone wanted to know more about this woman behind and on the hot seat. she talked about this in part on "the charlie rose show" earlier. >> we try to combine the best of chinese and the best of american method to teach them. >> all right. kim serafin is a senior editor for "in touch weekly." the murdoch family controls a big media empire in both news and entertainment. when we look at what happened and a new movie coming out, "snow flower and the secret fan." what are you hearing about that in. >> a lot of people obviously know who rupert murdoch is but don't know a lot about his wife, wendi, and when this happened yesterday, trending on twitter immediately, called the slap heard around the world. >> she co-produced this movie. >> right. she read the book several years ago and she optioned it and also
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looked and got her own investors from mostly chinese investors which i think is pretty admirable. you think you're married to rupert murdoch you could put your hand out and ask for money. she went out and got chinese investors for movies. did open against harry potter. you're competing against something like harry potter. obviously it will be hard to get attention, but now with this incident yesterday people are really paying attention to her and the movie. >> they asked the question how involved is she in the murdoch empire, and what does she do for him? >> although she doesn't have an official title she's been very involved. people are talking about how she's been very helpful to him and very supportive, and you saw that in what happened yesterday. just as she jumped out to save him. people say she shaved him not just from a pie in the face but saved his image in a lot of ways and that might even be more important than what she's doing behind the scenes because this image makeover is necessary right now. >> yeah. do you think here, kim, that she actually by jumping up and hitting that assailant, that she made him human in some way? >> i think so. i think a lot of people who
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recognize that relationship may be initially saw, here, this is this young girl with an older m man. people are now seeing this in a whole different liggett, a wife p protecting her husband. >> there's some that some thought rupert murdoch might walk away from this scathed, hurt. but did the man that had the pie save him this this hearing? >> had wendi not slapped him, had he gotten the shaving cream pie in the face, maybe things would be different, but her jumping in and saving him from that i think really turned a lot of people's images around, turned people's minds around from looking at him, looking at him as a human being. >> and this phone hacking scandal said to involve everyone in the royal family to those in hollywood, 4,800 victims we
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believe at this moment, yet we're not seeing a lot come forward. jude law is one of them. why have we not heard from others? >> a lot of celebrities affected by this, and we've heard about the british celebrities, sienna miller and jude law, hugh grant and george michael. we haven't heard the american celebrities come forward and talk about this, possibly because rupert murdoch controls a lot of hollywood. >> many of the celebrities work with rupert murdoch's companies in many ways and there's that issue and there's always the issue when they complain about their privacy, even though phone hacking very bad, but i think they have to be careful because people always say, oh, it's the celebrities. they are complaining about this. they are complaining about that. they have having. again, phone hacking much worse than somebody taking a picture of somebody at a supermarket, but i think you have to sort of balance it, and you have to read something today and not sound like a celebrity complaining about somebody taking a photo of
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you without makeup on. >> appreciate that. coming up, the debt ceiling fight gets down, dirty and outright personal. every day, all around the world, energy is being produced to power our lives. while energy developement comes with some risk, north america's natural gas producers are committed to safely and responsibly providing decades of cleaner burning energy for our country, drilling thousands of feet below fresh water sources within self contained well systems and using state of the art monitoring technologies, rigorous practices help ensure our operations are safe and clean for our communities and the environment we are america's natural gas. and clean for our communities and the environment diabetes testing? what else is new? you get the blood, hope it's enough, it's-- what's this? freestyle lite® blood glucose test strip. sure, i'll try it, but-- [beep] wow. yep, that's the patented freestyle zipwik™ design. it's like it-- [both] targets the blood. yeah, draws it right in.
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woman: honey go get him. anncr: there's an easier way to save. get online. go to geico.com. get a quote. 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance. now to another controversial topic. there's a nationwide push right now to limit access to abortions, and it's quickly gaining ground. already some 19 states have passed a total of 162 new measures in the first six months of this year alone. this afternoon ohio governor john kasich became just the latest governor to sign a bill revising the statewide abortion limit. so far this year 49% of bills restricting abortion access have cleared state legislatures. that's more than double previous record that was set in 2005. now, nancy northrup joins us.
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tell me about what's happening on the state sides. >> what you have to understand is these new state legislatures came in to deal with the economy and jobs, but they brought with them an anti-choice agenda which wasn't what the voters voted them in for, and they are pushing it through at record rates this year. >> all right. proponents are saying that some doctors may endanger lives during late-term abortions in the process of that. what's your now the on that? >> these bills have nothing to do with women's health. they have everything to do with an agenda of overturning "roe v. wade" and an an agenda to limiting access to abortion services. one in three women in the united states has an abortion. it's a common medical procedure, and what this is about is trying to turn the clock back to when those were not safe procedures but were in fact criminalized. >> and that is being moved back in terms of the number of weeks that are allowable for late-term abortions. there are some concerns, are there not, about them becoming
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more dangerous as weeks go on? >> the supreme court made clear in "roe v. wade" and has affirmed ever since states can ban for women's health abortions later in pregnancy, but they have to also have an exception for women's health, and the problem with these bans that are passing is they don't have that health exception. for women who are in difficult circumstances and need to have a later abortion. they are not very common, but for those women that need them, they are important. >> i want to show you some data which follows this issue very closely showing there were just 20 enacted abortion restriction laws in 1985. also that number this year has jumped to -- jumped in 2011. when you look at the sort of numbers, right here on the screen right now, what does this mean for "roe v. wade"? >> well, what it means is the end game for the anti-choice forces is to reverse roe, but in the meantime what they are trying to do under the radar screen is chip and chip and chip away so that there are fewer doctors providing abortion services and that abortion
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services are harder for women to access. >> what's the likelihood, when you talk about 50 states. in are laws being considered in every state of the union regarding and restricting women's health services what. will this mean for women, and what does it mean long term? >> part what have we hope is that when the courts step in and the center for reproductive rights has been suing to make sure that these unconstitutional restrictions don't stand, if courts step in and protect women's constitutional rights, then access groups will still be there, so it's really important. people often say, well, what's the role of the courts? it's to make sure that majorities cannot just run over people's constitutional right, and that's a we're seeing right here with a lot of the state legislatures. >> nancy, thank you so much. nancy northrup, president of center for reproductive rights. with senate republicans showing flexibility in the debt fight and americans showing a declear for a balanced approach, some think that congress blasting the tea party stalwarts, many just freshmen, for putting ideology ahead of
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real solutions on the debt crisis of the one of them is congressman jim moran, democrat from washington. congressman, thank you for your time. i want to get to all of that in one second, but first i understand that as we speak your female congressional colleagues are gathering at the moment protesting what they call sexist remarks by congressman allen west who said of congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz saying, quote, you are the mostville, unprofessional and most despicable member of the u.s. house of representatives. you've proven repeatedly that you are not a lady and, therefore, shall not be afforded due respect from me, end quote. what is your understanding about what's happening during this meeting? >> i shouldn't get into that because, frankly, debbie and her colleagues are more than capable of defending themselves. obviously that's nonsense on the part of mr. west. he should be ashamed of himself, but i think he's taken on some
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folks that he'll -- he'll rue the day he did, that because these are strong people, and my money would be with them, but obviously he should be ashamed of himself, and i think they are going to make it clear why. >> congressman, i want to go to something that you wrote yesterday on the huffington post. you wrote, quote, the republicans aim to use a crisis of their own making to hamstring future congresses, and when you wrote that, now in the consideration of the cut, cap and balance bill has pass and tea party-supported candidates are on record now with opposing what democrats want, will we now start to move towards more pragmatic solutions? >> well, i certainly hope so. i mean, this is the only way for us to -- to act responsibly. i do think what's going to happen is that president obama will sign a short-term extension of the debt ceiling that will probably be approved by the congress with a lot of these tea party types voting no, but i
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think we'll get a majority, and that will give the senate more time to work out a responsible proposal that will probably be along the lines of the so-called gang of six. i've met with mark warner twice now today. he's been meeting with steny hoyer. he's selling it on the house side. there are a lot of problems we might have with it in terms of its implementation, but the fact is from a macro standpoint it makes sense. it does cut spending by about $3 trillion over the next decade t.raise tdecade. it raises rec knew by about half that much but does so in an equitable manner. it cleans up much of the tax code and many of us have been looking for that to happen ever since the bowles/simpson commission exposed the fact there's more than $1 trillion dollars being lost. >> as we look at the closing of the loopholes, as you know, those in the house of the right persuasion may not sign on to
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that. it's clear at this moment with ccb signed off on that they do not want that. >> no, they don't. i'm just hoping that there is a majority of rational people and that's basically what it comes down to. if not, i don't know what happens. i mean, it's a little strange that what the republicans are giving the democrats is the ability to avoid an international financial catastrophe, a complete implosion of our financial markets and the loss of our credibility in terms of u.s. currency and in return they get trillions of dollars of cuts to the physical and human infrastructure programs that makes this country strong and great, but, you know, that's the compromise they are insisting upon. i do think with the mix that the president has proposed there must be a majority of rational responsible members of the house who are willing to accept it, and we can move beyond this point, but i can't guarantee
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that. this is -- i've never seen as radical ideologically oriented composition of the house, even under the gingrich republican years. this is the worst ever because they really don't know enough to know what they don't know. >> all right. congressman jim moran of virginia, thank you so much for spending your time with us today. >> you bet. >> next, america and the heat wave that just won't quit. stay with us. a lo t of people think fiber can do one thing and one thing only, and those people are what i like to call wrong. take metamucil. sure it helps you keep regular, but it doesn't stop there. metamucil is the only leading fiber supplement with psyllium, which gels to help remove waste and reduce cholesterol. it can multi-multitask. it's so 2012. look at it! it's doing over a million different things right now.
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sunny skies across the country may not look threatening, with you right now we in the middle of a heat wave, the number one weather-related killer in the u.s., responsible for 1,500 deaths every year. weather channel meteorologist carl parker is here with the forecast. we're looking at a whole host of
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states that are at risk here. >> yeah. we're talking a lot about the heat index values in the last couple of days here. when the humidity is very high, makes it a lot harder for your body to cool off, so right now it feels like about 109 in chicago and 108 in st. louis. that's dangerous, of course, but then tonight, even as temperatures drop going into 11:00, look at that. still feels like 101 in st. louis and 95 degrees in chicago. very hot weather continues for the middle of the country. it will migrate eastward the next couple of days and make its way northeast and gradually through next week it will migrate back to the west, but there's really no end in sight as we look back to the future. >> thank you for that. >> next, has rupert murdoch pulled off the great escape? stay with us.
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all right. first rupert mur -- and his son on the hot seat. now members of parliament
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trained their sights on prime minister david cameron about the hacking scandal. cameron fielded 136 questions that hit on everything from, quote, inappropriate conversations surrounding the bskyb bid to the hiring of his former head of communications and former "news of the world" editor andy coulson. >> of course, i regret and i'm extremely sorry about the furor it has caused. with 20/20 hindsight and all that has followed, i would not have offered him the job, and i expect that he wouldn't have taken it, but you don't make decisions in hindsight. you make them in the present. you live rand you learn, and believe you me, i have learned. >> and confront the conservative cameron, the opposition did. >> he was warned, and he preferred to ignore the warnings so that the country can have the leadership we need. why doesn't he do more -- why
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doesn't he do more than give half an apology and provide the full apology now for hiring mr. coulson and bringing him into the heart of downing street? >> well, for more on today's emergency hearing, i'm joined now by itn reporter sally biddulph. how did he do and what's your assessment? were things better or worse after things were done? >> well, rich, the consensus here in the uk is that david cameron actually did pretty well today. it was a difficult session for him in parliament. he was fielding, as you said, a number of questions from very angry mps. he stopped short of giving a full apology for hiring andy coulson to be his head of communications, andy coulson, of course, being the man from the "news of the world," the editor at the time of the phone hacking allegations. the opposition didn't like the fact that he didn't give a full apology for hiring andy coulson,
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and they accused mr. cameron of a catastrophic lapse in judgment of hiring him and mr. cameron countered by saying if he ever found out andy cowlingson had lied to him and if andy coulson is found guilty of anything to do with the phone hacking allegations, then as prime minister he would come forward and give a profound apology and put his full weight behind it, but for today there have been a lot of calls for mr. cameron to resign over the past few days, but for now those voices seem to be pretty silent. >> sally, really paralleling some calls for rupert murdoch for his future, that he might step down and lit his vice chair take over, how have those two prominent figures been compared in the uk? >> well, yesterday was pretty much rupert murdoch's today and today was mr. cameron's. there's been a big shift in focus in the uk press. yesterday, of course, we had the extraordinary scenes where rupert murdoch and his son james were put on the spot by a very powerful committee of mps, and then mr. murdoch was pied in the
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face which tended to kind of pull the attraction away from him, but today the real focus has been on david cameron in the spotlight answering very uncomfortable questions but dealing with them head-on and silencing his critics, for now. >> all right. sal sally, thank you so much for that. while eyes today were on prime minister david cameron in the house of commons as sally was telling us, many are still discussing the grilling of the murdochs. some good news, however, for the embattled media mogul, stocks rebounding. with more on this i'm joined by sarah ellison, contributing editor to "vanity fair" who has written extensively about the murdoch family. when we look at this, is this the beginning of the end of the murdoch empire? >> well, i certainly think that this is the beginning of the end of rupert murdoch's omnipotence
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and the myth that has surrounded him. his appearance yesterday really was quite humbling. he himself said it was the most humble day of his life, and he really appeared quite old and hard of hearing, and it was almost like a george steinbrenner moment for him, in fact? in that moment when he did show his age, shall we say, not being able to remember certain figures or certain events and certain names, how do you think that was perceived by those who watched the murdoch empire, you yourself, for instance? what did you learn from seeing that? >> well, i think one thing it in fact it was a day where being 80 and hard of hearing was actually very much to his benefit because he managed to get through the day without admitting anything that was damaging, and from a legal perspective it was very good. of course, i think it made him seem quite weak, and it made it very difficult to imagine how someone in that state can really have any kind of a command of such a vast empire. what he kept saying is i had no idea. i had no knowledge of that. yesterday people went into the hearing wanting to know what did
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they know when, and they were joking afterwards, what didn't they know never because no one really had any information. >> ceo and chairman should have all information, at least take responsibility for the existence of certain activities and sets ultimate fiduciary responsibility stops at that table that he sits at. when you look forward to who is going to take that forward in the future, will it stay in the family? >> a lot of people are asking that question. this essentially makes james murdoch's ascension to the ceo spot at news corporation seem less certain than it did before all of this, and the running of the company that -- the way rupert has run it is -- is very much as a family company, and i think now people are wondering if that's really appropriate. >> how does it look for his son though? he was right by his side. might he be the one in. >> for james murdoch? >> yes. >> i think james has clearly more attention to the details and the facts of this case, but he's been inalterably damaged by this scandal because he was the ceo of europe and asia when the
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largest elements of what you might call the cover-up of this case occurred, and he was seen as sort of the person who let this spiral out of control. whether or not he knew exactly what was happening, he was responsible for resisting for such a long time that anyone truly addressed this scandal. >> it seems like individual and institutional investors are comfortable with see rupert murdoch stay in this prime position, so should he not stay there? >> well, i think that the stock is still down over a two-year period, even though it came up a bit yesterday. >> but within the recent period, it's staying pretty consistent despite what has happened? >> i think we'll see what the judgment is overall when the facts have come out about this. you notice, i think investors, if they deem him fit and proper to stay in his position, he will. >> and he wants to stay in the position. >> very much so. >> is it the right thing to do
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here? >> i think that, you know, this is a question that we don't have all the facts yet. i mean, certainly it seems like i think the mist of murdoch's infallibility has been punctured by this and there are a lot of questions at this stage. >> it's been said we're in the third inning of a long, long 2k3w5i78. what do you think? >> i think it's right. it's something that's blown up in the past few weeks, even though it's been going on for years. these things can go on for months, if not years. there are many other shoes to drop. >> as parliament takes a break as well. thank you very much, sarah ellison. much more ahead, stay with us. i love that my daughter's part fish. but when she got asthma, all i could do was worry ! specialists, lots of doctors, lots of advice...
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with the tenth anniversary of 9/11 quickly approaches, there's some troubling details coming to light. 15 of the men involved in the attacks were from saudi arabia. evidence is now surfacing suggesting that all of them, including bin laden may have been bankrolled by the saudi royal family. all part of a new books titled "the 11th day." anthony summers cowrote the book.
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he's here to tell us part of the story that many americans do not know. thank you for being here. in your research and conclusions, did you find the saudis helped bin laden before or after 9/11? >> we spent five years writing "the 11 24 day." the saudi supposed involvement ran through it like a thread. it was constant. it was constant before 9/11, and now with the release of some 200,000 documents, many of which we were allowed to examine, we see the reported elements of the saudi involvement, they also blurred a great deal. >> who redacted that information? >> well, the redactions were from the congressional inquiry, the joint inquiry which took place earlier. president bush order the last chapter, the crucial chapter, which apparently involves above all the saudi angle, ordered it
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suppressed and just a couple years ago when obama came to office, he was asked by one of the bereeved families whether he would see the chapter released, and he has not do it. as far as that material, it was put in the footnotes, the stuff in the tiny print. that could not be, and i think the public has the right to demand the release of that information. >> what did you find about finding oil and injures, and one being more important than another. >> all administrations have to make strategic decisions, but i think this outrage against the united states was so vast, so unique, so unheard of, and the outrage and the grief has lasted
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so long that the public simply deserves to know the full truth, or as much of the full truth as we can know about arcane and secretive that comes out of the middle east. >> finally, in your study, five years for this book, you were able to come up with a hypothesis about what drove the hijackers and osama bin laden. why? >> i think it mo disappeared in the fog of 9/11, certainly the young hijackers, the guys who learned to fly planes were absolutely driven not just by religious s.e.a.l., but by the palestine/israel issue. that's got lost in the future. i think it's important, also relevant to osama bin laden himself. >> now, with all the investigation you have down, probably more questions have arisen along the wade. how much is known versus unknow
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if you had to make a sfa guess? >> i think there's more that could be made clear, but i think it's past official investigation now. i think an important area that the public should no more about is why the cia missed it. it knew about and identified two of the 9/11 terrorists, the guys who arrived first in the united states, knew they had visa to enter the united states, learned that one had actually entered, and yet never shared that with the fbi. >> anthony summers, thank you so much. i appreciate your time today. thanks for watching. dylan ratigan picks things up from here. what do you have on the agenda? >> we have an awesome one. bernie sanders hot out of the box with vicious criticism for the gang of six plan, which is basically get the endorsement of the white house.